If you've recently found yourself in the land of the $10 pot of yoghurt and the $5 tomato, you're probably at a farmers' market. Originally formed to connect rural producers and food makers directly with city consumers, the farmers' market is slowly entering the mainstream of retailing even as it continues it stringent rules to delineated it from other "markets".

"Our rules state that stallholders must either be the producer, or the maker of the value-add product," says Australian Farmers' Market Association director Jane Adams. "An authentic farmers' market is a direct connection between consumer and producer – provenance is an integral part of it and you lose that when there are resellers and agents."